West Boynton great-grandmother dies from crash injuries

The elderly couple had just celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary. In their car one afternoon last week, on their way home from a dentist's office, they spent their last moments together.

Just 5 miles from their suburban Boynton Beach home, a teenage driver barreled through a red light, plowing into Evelyn and Maurice Gartman's car, authorities said.

After six days in Delray Medical Center, Evelyn Gartman, 82, died Tuesday. She is to be buried Friday in South Florida National Cemetery west of Lake Worth, said the couple's son, Leonard Gartman.

Maurice Gartman, 85 — a World War II Navy veteran and part of the D-Day invasion — survived the accident and was recovering at a rehabilitation center. He did not yet know his wife of 65 years had died.

"I'm trying to muster up the courage to go see him, because I don't have a poker face. It would be hard to hide," a solemn Leonard Gartman, 52, said on Thursday. "They didn't deserve this. My mother was a saint. It's horrible."

About 3:30 p.m. on Dec. 7, Alexander Worrall, 18, of Boynton Beach, was driving a Ford SUV south on Military Trail, west of Boynton Beach, when he blew through a red light at Old Boynton Road, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said. He slammed into the Gartmans' Hyundai as they turned left onto Military Trail, the PBSO said.

Leonard Gartman said his parents moved from to Florida from Philadelphia in 1956. Evelyn Gartman, a mother of three, was a natural caretaker, he said. She is also survived by five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Jerry Cohen, a neighbor of 13 years, said that Evelyn Gartman was thoughtful and attentive. After his wife had surgery, Evelyn Gartman brought dinner and dessert for the couple, he said.

"She was concerned for everybody. She took everything to heart," Cohen said, "God works in strange ways."